Hope You're Happy, Obama! This 'Do Not Track' Button Is Going To Make Content More Expensive For Consumers

A consortium of Web companies, including Google,
Apple, and
Microsoft,
has agreed to include "Do Not Track" buttons in Web browsers
going forward.

When a user clicks on this button, it will,
according to the WSJ, prevent companies from "using the
data about people's Web browsing habits to customize ads, and
have agreed not to use the data for employment, credit,
health-care or insurance purposes."

The announcement is part of a privacy push from President
Obama and the FTC.

Privacy advocates are oh-so-excited about the news.

"It's a good start," Christopher Calabrese, legislative
counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the
Journal.

So are lots of normal people. The WSJ
has a poll that shows 93.7% of respondents will use the new
button.

There's at least one reason why you shouldn't join in on
the hosannas.

There is nothing sinister about third-party ad tracking
cookies. They’ve been used since very early in the history of the
web when General Motors, for example, insisted in serving its own
ads on content sites so it could verify what was bought and
optimize its targeting. Without that ability, many large
advertisers will refuse to buy ads and the value of ad-supported
media could plummet — just at a time when we are concerned about
how we will support news media.

You read it here first: Because of this agreement, you are going
to have to pay for more content than you would have otherwise.

The actual good news out of all this?

From an industry source: "This should defuse
draconian measures that would undermine the functioning of the
Internet as we know it."